Reviews

Do we dream in colour or in B&W?Backspace, rephrase this! Do we daydream in complementary colours?

And by mentioning complementary I am not referring to the colour theory. Because in theory, complementary colours, when put together they cancel each other out, when put side by side they create the greatest of the clashes.

​Close enough but not my idea! The complementary colours I am referring to, are the ones we daydream in. The ones that are carefully hidden from the others, never revealing their and our secrets. And ultimately creating the greatest paradoxes.

People shoot in B&W and with a great dexterity. Iris is one of them. But why? The "why" is the most important question to be answered in photography, in any single image. Why a photograph has been taken? And then, why it has been taken in B&W? Or better, why it has been stripped down to some greys? Superbly rendered, without doubt, but still greys.

I don't have the answer, I can only wonder and ask more questions. This is what I do. And here are my wondering and wandering thoughts.

The photographers that shoot, edit or interpret in B&W are full of colours. But they know by hard experience that these very colours are not seizable in their life time. They can be the destination but never the voyage, not for them.They can be a secret dream but cannot become reality, not for them. And what is bad for them can be good for us, the viewers. Their visual paralysis in front of colour, channels all their talent and energy towards the grey palette. If one day they will find and embrace colour when awake, nothing will be the same anymore.

The present picture, more than its original visual architecture (foreground used as a barrier or an observation point), its symbolic content (horse/freedom, river/life, man/solitude), it bears a powerful narration on rural whereabouts of today .

Imagine this same picture with earth tones, clay shades, dirty blue waters and dead green flora. It would be a betrayal to the eyes of the author. Because, that would be so remote from the secret colours never rendered on a film (or sensor). So remote from the:

"Picture yourself in a boat on a riverWith tangerine trees and marmalade skiesSomebody calls you, you answer quite slowlyA girl with kaleidoscope eyes"